On a windy Sunday afternoon, Montpelier police and fire personnel look up to where a long wooden board and numerous bricks fell from the topmost portion of the building housing Aubuchon Hardware in Montpelier. See page B1.
Staff Photo

MONTPELIER — Gusting winds and deteriorating mortar are believed to be to blame for the Sunday afternoon collapse of a portion of a crumbling brick parapet wall atop the historic downtown building that houses Aubuchon Hardware.

Fire Chief Robert Gowans said roughly a dozen bricks, a 12-foot section of two-by-four, and some copper flashing all fell to the sidewalk at about 2:30 p.m. No one was hurt, he said, and emergency personnel quickly cordoned off the sidewalk and seven parking spaces in front of the building and summoned a structural engineer.

Representatives of DeWolfe Engineering responded to the scene and removed loose brick in two or three areas along the parapet wall, which extends roughly 3 feet above the roofline of the building, owned by the Aubuchon family.

A tarp was placed over the wall, and Gowans said the sidewalk and parking spaces were kept off limits as a precaution overnight. He said representatives from DeWolfe planned to return to the building and conduct a more thorough analysis and consult the building's owner before deciding how to proceed.

According to Gowans, a decision about whether to reopen the sidewalk would likely be made by midmorning.

A pedestrian reportedly alerted emergency personnel that the bricks were falling Sunday.

According to Gowans, it appeared gusting winds got under a section of copper flashing on the roof, toppling some of the brickwork.

“It was very windy,” he said.

The parapet wall is an architectural feature of the late-19th-century building but does not have any structural significance, Gowans said.